Our school has a weak peanut policy in place, but classrooms with allergic children are suppose to be peanut free (which we know is only semi valid on a good day). Today, due to a function in the gym, kids ate in their classrooms. My kids usually come home for lunch, or we have a car picnic, but I do let them attend special lunch days, with me or DH attending. When I saw that they were eating in the classroom, i asked if they wanted me to go and get their food and bring it in, and they said yes. I stuck around during lunch, to 'help', and was AMAZED at how many pb&j sandwiches, pb& crakers, pb granola bars etc there were. In the peanut free classroom. I mentioned it to the teacher, and she had the kids eating them move away from mine.

I feel like a crazy person, but I don't think this is ok. I did not ask to have a peanut free class, if if you're going to have on, it needs to be enforced. Even on 'special' lunch days.

If the classroom is peanut free then the kids who brought peanut products should have been removed from the classroom to eat elsewhere.

In addition, a note should be sent home to remind parents. And if the kids bring peanut products again they don't get to eat their lunch. A child will not starve from missing a lunch but they will definitely remember to remind their parents. Or if for some crazy reason they are unable to eat any other food then they would have to eat their lunch in a separate room.

If the peanut lunches were being eaten already when it was noticed then the kids with the peanut allergies could be removed from the classroom for their safety but that should only be an exceptional basis as don't want them removed when it is not their choice.

That is ludicrous to have so many kids eating peanut products in a peanut free classroom!

_________________me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

Sorry to just see this now. The problem with eating in the classroom is that the allergen is smeared around the desk, chair and anything else that the student touches. Reactions have been known to occur with traces or protein too small to see.

It is not right to make students feel unsafe at school. It affects their ability to focus on their studies. It creates unnecessary stress for the allergic student who has to make a mental note of all the surfaces that have been touched so that they do not inadvertently touch these surfaces and rub their eye, lick their finger to turn a page etc.

If this is going to happen, the school needs to have a policy in place to reduce the risk of exposure. This can be roving the students who bring allergens to school while they eat, banning the allergen or increasing the custodial assignments.

If policies are not followed, then you can assume there is no policy. You may need to go up the chain.

The one thing I am not sure about is how teachers decide if something is or is not peanut butter. We eat pb at home all the time but for school it is soybutter, wowbutter etc. - and they all look like pb and their smells are not that far off. Because I am a cooperative allergy parent, I have stuck stickers/labels on the lunch box...but you won't always get that level of helpfulness even when the non nut allergy parents are being fully cooperative.

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